Different night...

Nine pm, Saturday. It ends tonight, he ran through the plan in his head once more.
As she walked back through the entrance, the path leading to the dance-floor lit, signaling the queen back to her domain, she obliged. Emptiness was never a topic to be pondered upon by the dancing creatures of the night, it was a thinker’s theme, she thought. For she felt strange somehow, empty inside, every aspect of her vagabond life with all its shortcomings laid out in her head with conscience bombarding her with weapons of guilt, fear and angst.

The music was pumping, lights were dimmed, liquor was flowing and the entire room was filled with smoke. She couldn’t keep still; she tried to make her way outside, away from the crowd, the superficial. She noticed that she made it through the people easier than usual, she didn’t knock a glass over, or step on someone, and no one seemed to notice her anymore, they ignored her, as if they had known that in her mind at that exact moment, she betrayed them, she saw through them. What was so different about tonight? Why had no one seemed to notice that she was the queen?

It had gone as planned, it worked. He felt a sigh of relief as he ran through the possible consequences once more in his head, with the ticket in hand and the visa stamped. They did not seem to matter much anyway. The phone rang, his heart missed a beat. Had they known?
“hullo, hullo?”
No answer, strange.

She felt every second of her remorse, bizarre remorse. Never once in life, had she bothered about her ailing mother, or the hopeful father. She wanted to fly, and she felt more to the ground than ever before. Why tonight? What had happened tonight?

The shrill sound of a woman’s nerve-chilling scream startled her, there was panic suddenly, and they started whispering words that she never thought she would hear. She felt everyone’s gaze on her suddenly. But they looked down elsewhere.

She walked to the centre of the gathered circle, through the people. No one stopped her. There she was, asleep. Sleeping as she had been through the pointless life. Lifeless, still and cold. She fell to her knees, at the feet of the fallen queen. If only, she knew how. Her life would never be complete. Not in this lifetime, not the next.